I grew up attending Community Bible Church. In fact, I remember meeting in the basement of Art Harder’s house and I remember the construction process of the sanctuary, now referred to as “The Chapel”. I remember the hot summer’s in that sanctuary during VBS week. I remember (though I did NOT enjoy!) cleaning the church as that was divvied up and done by families in the church. I hated vacuuming the stairs. I remember the pot luck’s in the fellowship hall, now the youth room. The missionary from India feeding us “native” food. I remember singing and playing trombone in church and totally messing up the place in getting ready to tour with the band. Very little in my memory doesn’t include the church, THIS church in some fashion. If the doors were open, we were there.
I had a conversation with a friend recently who told me of his experience growing up in church. His church believed that anything remotely resembling anything close to “tradition” was considered to not be “of the Spirit”. Thus, it was squelched. He’s now considering converting to Catholicism, due partly to his desire to belong to something that understands history/tradition. He remarked to me that he envied my rich history, my heritage was to be valued.
I accepted Christ at age 7. I remember being influenced, actually I was disturbed by things I had heard in church. And I could not sleep. I wandered into the living room, interrupted conversation between my parents and started asking questions. That night, my parents led me to Christ.
We were, of course, very involved in church. I was very “into” the Bible during parts of late elementary and junior high school. I enjoyed reading out loud and would do so during Sunday night Bible study. I was baptized at 13, along with a group of guys in the waters of Olathe Lake. I was very involved in MBY (TREK as thy call it now) as were the handful or so of us guys about my age who attended CBC at the time. I was encouraged and grew, but my core faith was rarely challenged.
God has typically worked in my life in “non-dramatic” ways. God speaks to me and I do my best to follow. When I hit the demands of college, I felt God calling me to a higher understanding of Who He is. No big moments. Just the tug of God encouraging me to delve into deeper understanding. You could say God challenged my faith. Though I wasn’t always fond of the tasks, God led me and I trusted. We had some rather interesting conversations! I came to grasp that God is Sovereign. He does want what’s best for me. My task is to not see Christianity as an event or even as a task. It’s a daily struggle. A daily fight. A daily joy! A choice on how I choose to live. Some moments the choice was easy. Others, not so easy! And many moments where God would fill the gap of my own humanity.
That was half my life ago! Much of my life points back to that time and the thousands of moments where I was (and am still!) being put to the challenge. I see that this is a journey. And interestingly, it’s not a journey that “just” started some 40 years ago for me, it’s a journey that goes back hundreds of years. Thousands. I am a part of the heritage of being a Christian. I am a part of God’s complete story. I pray that I am worthy of that call. And that I can pass that on to the next generation. It’s an honor to be a part of that heritage.
